Answered

It's not so much the viewer as it is your own graphics card. As Karen says, your card's drivers have to be updated. Otherwise, your card, which was probably made before Win 8 was introduced, won't know what to do with it. Unfortunately, however, some older Intel graphics chips will not support OpenGL (the graphics system that is the basis for Second Life) on Windows 8 at all. Here's the word from Intel:

"Intel has no plans to release Windows 8 graphics drivers for the following Intel Graphics Controllers. However, updates for these graphics controllers may be available through Microsoft Windows Update*.Desktop graphics